When one is not enough BSG
by FarronYun
Summary: Prologue: Meet Haumea-Ola a Kimjarian renegade who shows compassion to humans being hunted by Cylons; against the wishes of her people. She is forced to make a life changing decision to save the two humans caught up in the fray.


_**When one is not enough.  
**_

Prologue: Forging a future from the flames.

"Haumea-Ola how do you stand before the honored assembly of elders?" Haumea  
inwardly laughed. She was not standing at all, she had been forced to her knees like  
she was some criminal... but then again in their eyes she was. She had been stripped  
of her armor, and forced into the white rags of the condemned. It was all very formal,  
and she would have given her right arm to have avoided the patrol that had caught her  
with her human companions and their little band of survivors.

**_12 Hours Before_**  
"Rowen, tools I have." Haumea trotted up to the working mechanic. She had been  
pulling paneling from the wall like a mad woman searching for the air leak. The air in the  
compartment was thin, and she had been tugging at plating for the last ten minutes.  
Despite the hard work, the leaking atmosphere kept her from breaking into a sweat.  
"Wonderful, what did you find?" Rowen jumped down from her perch to face her alien  
friend. The exuberant creature was humanoid in shape and stood about 5'4", but it had  
taken some time to get use to the almost decorative bone plating on her face, hands  
and most major joints. Beside her now stood a human woman with honey blonde hair  
pulled back by a band at her neck. Rowen reached out to her offering her hand.  
"Rowen Adrian." She had grease and a smear of blood on her hand from banging her  
knuckles against the hull on more then one occasion. The woman took her hand with  
out hesitation.  
"Sheila Hitch." Her hand shake was firm and warm. Rowen nodded to the tool bag she  
carried in the other hand.  
"If you have the tools we need to fix this tub I'd say you're my new best friend."  
"Well then your in luck." Sheila pulled out a magnetic sealer. It was a quick fix to their  
current predicament.  
"That's so sexy." Rowen chimed flashing a smile. Sheila laughed handing it over to  
Rowen. The mechanic wasted no time climbing back up to the small hole leaking their  
precious air. Covering it she twisted the mag lock into place. The soft hissing noise that  
had dominated the compartment ceased.  
The three of them looked at one another listening to the quiet.  
"Hole is fixed." Rowen and Sheila shared a collective sigh. Haumea grinned pleased  
with herself that she had not only moved among the humans, but she had assimilated  
enough of their language from Rowen she could find the one they needed to help them.  
"Open the hatch Haumea, would you, it's a little thin in here." Haumea nodded to her  
friend and moved to open the hatch. A warm flow of air hissed past her filling the  
compartment.  
"Lets see what's next on getting this tub to work. The quicker we get the work done the  
better." Rowen motioned for Sheila to proceed her towards the hatch.

Haumea stepped into the hall and had only a moment to register there was some one  
familiar to her before the grappling arms hit her.  
"AH!" She was jerked off her feet into the hallway, thumping onto the hard deck plating  
on her shoulder and face before she rolled over onto her back. A body fall on top of her,  
it was the human female Sheila by the looks of it her arm had been caught in the  
tangling arms of the shocker.  
A non-sentient creature designed to fire out at some one trying to run, and entangle  
them. They got their name from the electric jolt they would send out if their prey started  
to try and escape.

"Haumea!" Rowen leapt out into the mess.  
"Rowen no!" But it was to late, the entangling arms of the shocker grabbed onto the  
mechanic. Wrapped its thin wire like arms around Rowen's back, pulling her into the  
tangle of bodies.  
"What the frack!" Rowen grabbed one of the arms trying to struggle free as they were  
being hauled down the hall way. Sheila looked up the line of the entangling wires to the  
pure white creature that filled the hall way. Its body knobby and segmented. It looked  
like a white beetle standing on two legs. Behind it there was a second one, its coloring  
was a soft red almost white pink color. They both held the origin of the entangling wires.  
She grabbed onto the wire around her arm as it dug in pinning her against the strange  
decorated alien who had found her in the hold. There was a sizzling sound of electricity  
a moment before the high volt struck them. What came next was pain, and darkness.  
They thrashed against it, muscles jerking from the electricity.

(* translated from kimjarian)  
*"Little one your spawn are going to die." They taunted as they hauled her towards the  
air lock they had come through.  
"You better put your armor and breather up or you will too." They laughed as they  
jerked her up over a hatch seal. Her body armor rose up to protect her as they dragged  
her down the hall roughly. Haumea turned her head up at them as the electricity ended.  
"I will go peacefully! Do not take them!"  
"To late for that." One of the hunters gurgled from inside his armor.  
"Their fate is on your head." The second one chimed in.  
"Do not do this!" Haumea reached out to the walls of the corridor but there was nothing  
to hold onto. All it got her and her trapped companions was another short jolt of  
electricity.

"AGH!!!No!" The humans were already unconscious by the second jolt, the scent of  
something burning made Haumea worried. The shocker was never bred to attack a  
human, who didn't have the natural armor defenses. She had never thought about it  
until the scent rose off of their skin. She stopped fighting the shockers arms and instead  
summoned her armor up. The reserves of liquid bone poured onto her skin sealing it  
behind a thick shield of durable carapace. Even as the last of the armor sealed shut she  
cracked it open along the seams of her chest.

Pulling the already prone women into the armor was not an easy task, but the arms of  
the shocker retreated from the soft inner tissue lining the armor.  
*"Stop that!" One of the guards protested, the disgust and revulsion in his voice. They  
jerked hard on the shockers arms and she thumped down the end of the hall way.  
"You leave me no choice." She hissed back through the breather of her armor.  
"You don't know what you are doing." The pink colored guard must have been a fresh  
recruit for his coloring darkened as he watched her readjust her armor to fit the two  
women.  
"Yes, I do. I'm saving their lives." Her armor sealed shut over the women, it saved  
them from the guards anger at the lacing arms of the shocker. She rolled out of the  
hatch writhing with her heavy burden. She floated limply in space letting them haul her  
to their beast; the Kimjarian version of a spaceship.

*"Haumea-Ola." The voice of the officiating elder Tyrs broke into her thoughts. She  
blinked several times until the Justice Tribunal of Elders came into clear view. She  
looked around at the gathering of elders feeling her face blush. She rolled her wrists  
against their binding in discomfort.  
"Elder Tyrs, I Haumea-Ola plead guilty to the charge of aiding aliens, and helping them  
escape death. I plead not guilty to resisting arrest, I clearly told my hunters I would go  
with them peacefully." Tyrs was not the only one to look over to the small hunting party  
that sat as witness to Haumea's plea.  
"How can you explain the burns to your carapace?" She straightened her back and  
lifted her chin. When she had arrived on Kimjar they had released her from the Shocker  
and inspected her armor. They had measured her newest evolution, weighed her, and  
took stills of her. Then they had locked a bleed collar on her, and had forced her armor  
to melt away into the natural reserves of her body. In essence they were making her  
turn right side out again by force. She spilled her precious cargo onto the floor in a heap  
of regenerative fluid. The whole process was demeaning, painful, and exhausting. Her  
only consolation was that both women were still unconscious.

*"My marks are the cause of excessive force." Haumea knew better then to speak bad  
about the hunters. She stated her case and would not go into detail unless requested  
by the Elder Tribunal.  
"Is it true you opened yourself for them?" Tyrs looked down the long bride of his nose at  
her. His knitted brows could have been concern, or disgust. She could not read the  
expression he wore. There was a murmur of voices as the tribal leaders expressed their  
own view of the facts.  
"It is true. They would have died otherwise." Haumea fought the urge to incline her  
head. The shame she could sense in the room was not her own. She would not allow  
them to press it upon her. What she had done, had saved two lives, no matter how they  
looked at it. She would have to live with consequences of her actions, but she had been  
taught that all life no matter how small was precious. She had no regret for saving her  
friend, and the helpful woman.

The dark eyes of Elder Tyrs gave Haumea a break as he turned to the Hunters who sat  
in the witness seats.  
*"Captain of the Hoard." The leader of the Hunters who had tracked, and captured  
Haumea rose from his seat.  
"Could you please explain why Haumea-Ola carry's the scorch marks of the shocker."  
"Honored Elders, The guards had already deployed the Shockers, one alien had been  
caught with her. The second one leaped in to try and free her. The Shockers did their  
task admirably. The aliens were collateral to capture of the accused. We had not  
expected her to go to such great lengths to save their lives, and her abusing the  
sanctity of The Choice invoked strong emotion in my hunters. She was punished for the  
desecration. I take responsibility for the excessive force."

Elder Tyrs raised his hand motioning for the Lead hunter to resume his seat.  
*"In such circumstances Captain, I am not entirely sure that we would not have all acted  
this way. In the future I hope you train your hunters to curb their emotion a little more.  
But they did accomplish their task. The hunters who brought her to you please stand."  
The two hunters stood before the Elder Council.  
"Did Haumea-Ola indeed surrender to you both?"  
"Yes Elder." There was a soft tint of shame to the bone wells around their cheeks and  
neck. Elder Tyrs nodded letting them return to their seats.  
"This gathering of the Elder Council was not to address excessive force used in  
retrieving criminals, but the guilt of this woman who chose to disobey our "No  
Interference laws. We have heard all sides of the case. The Council will reconvene  
tomorrow at the height of the day star to give sentence. Captain of the Guard please  
removed the accused." Haumea had hoped they would deliberate and deliver sentence  
soon. She felt eager to return to the two humans. She was exhausted, felt slightly ill,  
and weak.  
Haumea stood with the help of a guard.  
"Captain put her with the aliens. The Council recognizes the choice she has made,  
even if it was done poorly. It is her problem to deal with, not ours."  
"Yes Elder." The guard & Haumea bowed his in recognition of their decision, hers to  
show gratitude for the mercy they just gave her.... Everyone stood as the elders rose  
and began filtering out of the council room.

In the center of the Hall of Justice Rowen and Sheila sat in a small holding cell with no  
form of furniture. They had both had awaken in the cell, laid out on the soft pliable floor  
changed into what could be described as a hospital gowns and stripped of all personal  
effects. Both leaned against the back wall of the cell. Rowen was inspecting the coiling  
burn marks on her arms. What ever they had used to tie Haumea up had left them. She  
had a vague memory of being electrocuted, and then blackness, heat, and safety. She  
did not know how to lace the two memories together.

She looked up when she caught Sheila holding a trembling hand out. The honey blonde  
computer technician looked to her cell companion her hand still trembling.  
"Do you have the shakes?" Rowen nodded in answer.  
"I feel like I'm going to crawl out of my skin." She clenched her hand tight trying to stop  
the shaking. When it did not stop she tucked her hand under her arm in mimic of the  
mechanic.

"How long do you think it has been?" Rowen had never really been good with keeping  
track of time. She felt even more disoriented when there was no point of reference in an  
unchanging environment.  
"Seven hours, give or take a few minutes."  
"Seven hours since we have been awake." Rowen pointed out. Sheila nodded in  
consent of her reasoning. She had a memory of silk and heat, and safety in the  
blackness, but could not imagine where, between this stark white cell, and being caught  
back on the ship.

The sound of foot steps was constant as Haumea's people walked by, to gaze in at the  
two aliens. But the sound of marching was different and drew the attention of both  
women. The glass like door they were facing slid open. Haumea stood between two  
guards, bound hand and foot. The guards released her from her bonds before they  
gave her permission to enter the cell.

A sense of relief came over the two cell mates as she came into view. The look of relief  
on their faces was mirrored on Haumea's. She stepped into the cell her smile growing  
as she drew near to them both. It felt as if a weight lifted from off of her. From the  
entrance the guards taunted her as the glass like surface slid closed.  
*"You are a disgrace to all of us. It will be a joy when you and your unholy toys are cast  
into the endless black." Haumea ignored them, reaching for Rowen's arm she pulled  
gently until she was allowed to look. There were faded snaking burn marks from the  
Shockers running up her arms from the palms of her hands.  
"I'm alright. What about you?" Rowen looked at the raw marks on Haumea's wrists  
where she had been bound.  
"I am fine. Mostly Tired." She looked to Sheila and did the same gentle inspection of the  
fading burn marks. The woman made no protest or comment at the soft touch tracing  
the fading marks on her arm, neck and cheek. Her blue eyes seemed to hold a look  
of confusion by the compassion the virtual stranger was showing for her well being.  
They burn marks were still darker then Haumea had hoped, but in time they would be  
completely gone.

Only after her close inspection of both women did she let the knotting in her stomach  
loosen. She sat down on the floor facing them with her small hands tucked into her lap.  
They watched her shoulder sag and the stiffness in her spine was released nearly  
leaving her folded over on herself.  
"Hey." Rowen didn't like the lack of facial decoration of her friend. The usually white  
protruding bone, was a dove gray discoloration on skin. She reached out to Haumea  
touching her shoulder.  
"Come here. Lay down before you fall over." Haumea did not protest the invitation, no  
she silently welcomed it. Leaning into the touch of her friend she bonelessly slid onto  
the soft cell floor. There was not enough room for her to stretch out, so she tucked her  
legs to the side trying not to crowd Sheila. The woman still wore that confused worried  
look.

Sheila remained in her corner watching the two with an emotion she could only define  
as loss. They seemed very close, she wondered if they were more than friends. Rowen  
lay an arm over Haumea's stomach, her hand lightly resting on the curve of her friends  
arm.  
"So how long have we been here really?" Haumea let her eyes roll shut focusing on  
Rowens voice, and how her tired ears made her voice seem lower then it was.  
"We have been home for a hand of hands and some. It is nearly a hand and two past  
the peak of the day star."

"So 12 hours?" Sheila asked wondering if they were calculating the five on their hands  
of the four on Haumea's. Rowen nodded to her.  
"We were out for 5 hours." Sheila lowered her voice.  
"They could have done anything to us in that time." Rowen gave a small shrug. Why  
worry what they did when they still had to worry about what they were going to do. She  
was actually feeling better, if she kept this up she might actually feel normal soon.

Rowen raised a hand to test if the shakes had left her. Her hand was steady as she  
held it above Haumea's prone body. Sheila stared at the steady hand, her brows  
knitting. She did not have to hold her hand out to know hers still trembled.

Haumea opened her eyes looking up at Rowen's raise palm. She reached up and  
pulled it down settling it back across her stomach. She found comfort in Rowen's  
warmth. It quieted that empty feeling in her abdomen.  
"Haumea?" Green eyes shifted down to Sheila. She sat in the corner her knees pulled  
up, her arms encircling them. Even to Haumea the posture spoke of a disquieting  
feeling, and a need for comfort.

"Did they drug us?" The shake of Haumea's head was not a comfort to her.  
"Are you sure? We are aliens, aren't your people curious about us? Did they run  
experiments on us while we were unconscious?" Again Haumea shook her head no.  
"It is against all our laws to harm the honored."  
"I am not feeling very honored." Her features darkened as she raised her trembling  
hand.  
"I don't have these for no reason, they had to do something to me." A wounded look  
crossed Haumea's face, it went unnoticed by the honey blonde haired woman. Rowan  
would have missed it if the discolored patches on Haumea's face did not suddenly  
sprout a weak version of the usual decorative bone. It smoothed the tension out of  
Haumea's face. It covered the emotion that would have otherwise gone unnoticed.

Haumea wished to reach out to her, to take her hand and make the shaking stop, but if  
she did it might bring up a whole bunch of questions she was not yet able to explain to  
them. She simply did not know the words, nor did she want to make them feel stuck  
with her.

Haumea shrugged her shoulders as she had often seen Rowen do when she did not  
have the answer.  
"You are safe." She tried to assure her but knew by the knitted brows she had failed.  
"Don't worry about it. It will wear off, maybe its just an after effect of the electrocution."  
Sheila looked up to Rowen feeling more assurance then she did from Haumea's  
clarification of them being safe.

Haumea gave in to the exhaustion. Sleep came quickly, but it was not restful. The facial  
bones that had hidden the way her brows knitted, or the lines around worried eyes  
danced sometimes nothing more than a discoloration, other times solid formations  
formed a smooth crown, a craggy mountain range, or a jagged outcropping. After an  
hour or so the same transformations began to appear on her. The two of them stared at  
her watching the ever changing formations.

"How do you know she will not sprout spikes and spear you with them?" Rowen gave  
that small shrug that said she didn't have all the answers.  
"I trust that she will not." Sheila moved out of her corner, reaching out to Haumea  
to straighten her legs. Every bony protrusion melted away so quickly it sent a ripple  
effect across the surface of the now flesh toned wells of bone.

A series of chills ran through Rowen. She attributed it to the revelation of just how  
attuned their sleeping friend was to the world around her. Sheila sat down suddenly  
feeling a rush through her system.  
"Are you alright?" Rowen asked.  
"I think so, just been down for so long, I got up to fast." Rowen nodded in understanding.  
"Just take it easy."

Sheila stretched before she sat down with her back to the side wall.  
"Are you feeling any better?"  
"A bit actually, thanks."  
"Not a problem." Rowen lifted her arm when Haumea rolled onto her side. She pulled her legs up against her chest. Knees and shins pressed against Sheila's leg.  
"Maybe she is cold?" Sheila reached out touching her bare leg, she was very warm to the touch.  
"She is a hot blooded person." She did not remove her hand from Haumea's leg. The warmth pushed away the last of the shakes, and with it the nervous energy. She let out a soft sigh laying her head back against the bone white wall.

Rowen felt the need to let out a long sigh as she saw Sheila rest her head back. She did not known she had been focused so much on the woman's discomfort. The room seemed less tense as the honey blonde relaxed, she stretched across the floor and rested her cheek on on Haumea's calf.  
"All settled in?" Rowen asked amused by the woman.  
"It's not as comfortable as my rack but I'll make do."  
"Ooo yeaah, comfy." Rowen shook her head not at all believing that last statement. Racks were a modern torture device, pushed off to the masses as a place to sleep. She hated having to sleep in those, she preferred a hammock to the unforgiving unchanging bunk.  
"For a floor, I think it's quite comfortable, soft, warm even." Rowen studied the cell they were being held in. The walls were smooth, not a single seam or line broke the smooth surface. The wall sloped right into the floor, and even when she had tried to find a seam there had been none. The single exit of the cell was a glassy surface no doubt stronger then glass. She had tapped it earlier and it did not ring with the sound of glass.  
"I have not seen a single strip of metal since we left that tub of a ship. It doesn't have the texture of pulverized rock of any type. It is not any amalgam or synthetic that I have come across." Rowen reached down to the floor, it was smooth, soft and moldable. She could put fingers into it, grab a handful but it was sturdy.

In front of her Sheila poked a finger into the warm substance.  
"It isn't metal, it isn't stone, nothing synthetic we know of... that only leaves organic." She looked up to Rowen.  
"Maybe they are bioengineers."  
"A whole building?" Rowen seemed reserved in judgment. A bioengineered weapon, integrated body armor she could see, but a whole building? Sheila rolled onto her back turning her legs towards the only exit. She stared at the bone white ceiling and walls.  
"Why not?" Sheila reached out to the wall placing her hand against it.  
"These substances are consistant with bone, skin and flesh. That makes sense why they are warm." Rowen turned her head to the side to get a better look.  
"Does the fact that it might be alive bother you?" Her eyes moved to the honey blonde computer tech.  
"There are worse ways to die then being eaten." Sheila looked up to her, Rowen flashed her a grin.  
"Wouldn't it depend how many times they chew?." Their shared moment of amusement cleared the air. The silence that ensued was comfortable, welcoming them into sleep. Despite their circumstances there was no fear for the dawn of tomorrow.

Our main characters as we know them at current is  
**Haumea-Ola** - [How may uh - Oh la] A Kimjarian renegade.  
(She is the daughter of the tribal leader Keaanu Ola Ola from the Kailua Provence.)

**Sheila Hitch** - [She la] Human, Computer Technician & Graphic Artist

**Rowen Adrian** - Human, Knuckle Dragger (mechanic & engineer)

Other Characters:  
**Elder Tyrs** - [Terse, an elder on the Justic Council


End file.
